the sweetest thing that i know.
THINGS THAT WILL TAKE WINRY ROCKBELL’S BREATH AWAY— the itemized list is as follows: new automail designs she’s never seen before; seeing alphonse back in his body for the first time; the picture of her dad that she keeps tucked in her bedside drawer and that she loves because he looked so much like her; the first time she heard the lecoulte baby cry all the way back in rush valley; snow in resembool; the way granny can make a clean, straight cut with a scalpel look as if it’s the easiest thing in the world.
oh, and ed’s funny, endearing way of catching her off-guard with the fewest, simplest of words.
he manages to do so now, as they’re sitting knees-to-chest on the roof, supposedly stargazing. she’d been going off on a tangent, the way she always managed to — it was another sign that life was going back to normal, that their conversations were no longer peppered with quiet fear for the other’s safety spoken over the phone or briefly in person before ed had to go again. the exact words she said, winry couldn’t remember ( in part because her mind is all too preoccupied with the realization that edward’s eyes are such a rich shade of amber, rich enough to make her think that it could be her newest favourite colour ), but it had something to do with an offhand joke about how he better not leave her again, which apparently prompted him to say that.
winry realizes she hasn’t said anything back and reels because the last thing she wants is for him to interpret the silence as awkwardness, even though they were probably way past that stage already. they just know, but it never hurt anyone to say it out loud.
“ i know i am, ” she bumps her shoulder against his and scoots just a little closer. winry puts her head on his shoulder and breathes in, smells his shampoo and laundry detergent and maybe just a touch of cinnamon from the last apple pie he’d torn through at dinner. THIS IS HOME, winry decides. “ i’m right where i need to be. ”
in the sky, the moon is big and the stars are plenty and the next house is about twenty minutes away on foot — winry feels small in the vastness of it all, in the syrupy way that time and the rest of their lives were laid out in front of them, all for the taking. she finds that she doesn’t mind it at all. “ — i love you. ”
the night was quiet enough that not so long ago, it would have caused him to tense up & be wary of dangers—but he was beginning to learn, to ingrain within himself, that that part of his life was over. under the night sky, where it was dark enough for them to see the stars overhead ( central’s always been too big, too loud, & the streetlights alone were enough to block out the view ), the gentle breeze & the sound of crickets were the only things that accompanied them.
she’d wanted to climb to the roof in order to stargaze, and it’d only taken a little persuasion for him to agree ( there were stars in her eyes, too, & he’d much prefer to look at those ). they were sitting together, & she’d been close enough to touch the entire time; but they barely did, hands loosely held in the space between them. he didn’t mind, though—he was content enough with just her presence, here, & the sound of her voice. automail, it was something she loved to bits & yet another thing he adored about her; even if he didn’t understand all of the complicated jargon, he enjoyed listening to her talk about something she was passionate about ( & besides, she did the exact same for him when he spouted off about alchemy ). as the topic shifted, though, so did the tone of the conversation, leading to his honest words. confession made, and, after a few brief moments of silence that seemed like forever, & she was leaning closer to him, head resting on his shoulder in a way that made his heart skip. ed squeezed her hand in response.
“so am i.” funny, how he’d have been too embarrassed to say the words before, but now they come as easily as breathing. he turned his head slightly so he could press a kiss to her hair. “i love you too, ya big sap.” he said as the wind, this time a little chillier, whistled past them. “hey, you cold?”
